Starbucks to open at Corridor G Target in March

ByMegan Workman

Chris Dorst

The Target at Corridor G will open a new Starbucks coffee shop by the second week of March. Starbucks' construction will be completed Feb. 15. Store employees will use the time between the completed construction and grand opening to train team members to work at Starbucks.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Coffee cravers can celebrate, as the Target at Corridor G is expected to open another Starbucks in the Charleston area in March.

Janna Petry, executive team leader at the Target store, said the Starbucks is part of the retailer's remodeling effort. The South Charleston store started renovations Dec. 26 and will continue to update sections of the store during the next few months.

Petry said a new fresh produce section would be put in where the electronics area is now. Also, the "market aisles" will be extended by 4 feet to give customers more shopping space, she said.

Beginning Feb. 1, the store's existing freezers will be closed for a few weeks so that more than 100 freezer doors can be installed to "offer more variety to our customers," Petry said. Coolers will still be available for customers to buy items such as milk and eggs, she said.

A meat section -- not including a deli or a butcher -- will sell pre-packaged meats. Petry said she is not sure where in the store that would be located.

The Starbucks will be placed where the existing guest services is located near the front of the store. The guest services will be moved to the area where the express checkout lanes had stood, Petry said.

Starbucks' construction will be finished Feb. 15, but the coffee shop isn't scheduled to open until the second week of March, she said.

Petry said employees will use the time between the completed construction and grand opening to train Target employees to work at the coffee shop in positions such as a district manager, supervisor and team member.

Target employees also will be able to use their store discount at the Starbucks.

Target's in-store cafe, Food Avenue, will reopen Feb. 15 after it gets a "complete overhaul and totally new appearance," Petry said. The cafe will be called Target Cafe when it reopens, she said.

The cafe's renovations include new paint, tiling and newer equipment. The current Food Avenue will temporarily close Jan. 15 until the reopening of Target Cafe one month later, she said.

Petry said Target employees are "extremely excited" to open another Starbucks in the Charleston area. A Starbucks kiosk is in the Charleston Town Center Mall's center court, and another store is open in the Thomas Memorial Hospital Medical Office Pavilion in South Charleston.

"A lot of the newer Targets being built have a Starbucks and Pizza Hut inside. But the only Starbucks that is here in Charleston is in the mall, which is $1.75 to park [in the mall's parking garage]," Petry said. "There's not a Starbucks really close to the area and [the Target corporation] realized the demographic for our shoppers."

Petry said she doesn't know all the details about the new Starbucks yet, but the coffee shop will offer a variety of drinks, breads and muffins. Some Starbucks locations offer breakfast sandwiches, but the shop inside the Corridor G Target won't, she said.

Starbucks has announced plans to open at least 1,500 cafes in the U.S. in the next five years.

Starbucks officials announced last month plans to have 20,000 stores -- up from about 18,000 stores -- on six continents by 2014.